My girl is HILARIOUS!

Katelyn has been in rare form the last couple of days. I made her this little derby hat during our after school program craft time yesterday. When she saw it on the counter last night, she grabbed it, put it on, jumped into some crazy pose with her legs bent and her arms out saying, "I'm a cowboy." It was really funny.

Then this morning Katelyn was singing and playing in her crib. When I openned the door I said, "Good morning baby!" only to find her standing in her crib with a pair of brightly colored Dora the Explorer panties that she had taken off the top of the dresser and put on over her pajama bottoms. It was hysterical...and of course I laughed out loud. Katelyn stood there with her hands on her hips and said, "I crack myself up." I'm not kidding. I say this all the time so I know where she got it from, but it was the funniest thing I had ever heard....

What a great way to start the day.

Have I mentioned that this child makes me laugh every single day????

It's the simple things

How much do we really need to be happy?

Michael was reading a few news headlines to me last night...celebrities, athletes, politicians....huge amounts of money, fame, prestige, power...affairs, drugs, abuse.

It's sad to look at our country and see how badly many people are handling what they've been given. I think children are far better at living a successful life. They find value in the simple things....

For Katelyn it's the flower petals falling off the beautiful cherry blossom tree outside the church...

...it's blowing bubbles, stomping in puddles, digging in the dirt....

....it's a lollipop, a trip to McDonald's for a 49 cent ice cream cone, a couple of M & M's after dinner....

....it's a box to play in, a balloon to run around with. It's being spun in circles and dancing to music in the car. It's curling up with mommy to read a book or singing her favorite few songs before bed.

The world would be a different place if we learned how to live by watching the children around us.
I've learned how to live more simply...how to enjoy what I have because I work with kids everyday and they've help put into perspective for me what really matters.

Two years...

Two years ago in a hotel conference room in Nanchang, China this scared little baby was handed to me and I instantly fell in love and willingly became her mommy...

and today in Lexington, KY a nearly three year old is my best, best girl and I can't even begin to imagine life without her...

because she is a little piece of heaven here on earth.

And God has brought this sweet man into our lives and a little family has been formed.

And we are all really happy.

And ice cream treats and trips to the park make for the perfect evening.

And what better way to celebrate Katelyn's adoption than to hang out and play with her?

I thank God for Katelyn every single day and I am well aware of how blessed I am.

Bowling

You need to mentally prepare yourself for these pictures. I mean seriously...these are AWESOME! A two year old in baby bowling shoes and a six pound neon orange ball. IT. DOES. NOT. GET. ANY. BETTER. THAN. THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fridays are excellent. The after school program kids don't have homework. It's the end of the week. We all just want to play. What better than a trip to the bowling alley with a dozen kiddos???!!! Of course Katelyn is always included in the big kid field trips and she's always really excited to ride on the bus and participate in all the craziness...

Kateybug was serious about rolling this ball. She pushed that thing as hard as she could and that ball could not have rolled any slower down the lane. But she watched and waited and then gave everyone high fives when she knocked some pins down. HILLARIOUS!

Whoop, there it is! Did you see that strike?? (just kidding...she's only two).

Katelyn is so animated. She's hollering at someone and she's serious about something. She talked nonstop ALL DAY today. I heard the phrase "Hey mama...." no less than 2000 times.

Here are my girls. Aren't they fabulous!

Working with inner city kids has its challenges for sure...but it sure has its joys as well. Today was super fun and I love that I get to be in full time ministry and be a full time mom as well. Sometimes it's tough to juggle all of that but I am so blessed to get to do what I do with the kids and Katelyn LOVES getting to tag along. The kids really are great with her. They're so helpful and they look out for her and let her participate. Yesterday Katelyn got to be part of their kickball game. She was thrilled to kick the ball and run around the bases. Katelyn said several times today that she wanted to go to school with the big kids. I'm already looking into preschools. That's next... Katelyn's new thing she's working on is letter sounds. So she's constantly asking, "Mama, what letter does (insert word) start with?" And then she'll answer herself with the letter. She's got most of her consonants down. She's a smart little girl for sure!

Lisette was our high scorer today with a 123~! She even beat me (sad I know since we had the bumpers up).

I know what we'll be taking Grammy and Papa to do when they get here... You better grease up your ball....Katelyn's pretty good.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter (late)...He is risen!!!

I love Easter. It's my favorite church holiday for sure. We had a wonderful weekend. Saturday morning we took Katelyn to an Easter egg hunt. Of course the weather has been GORGEOUS for days and literally as soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the community center it started to rain. Fortunately there's a gym inside so they moved some of the activities indoors until the rain passed and then the kids were set free outside to hunt for eggs. Katelyn did great!

They had a little petting zoo. Katelyn of course loved that!

There was a bubble area which was her favorite. Katelyn and Michael kept busy there for quite some time. This kid loves some bubbles.

Katelyn loved getting to eat a Hershey kiss out of her Easter basket BEFORE breakfast. She was a little sad she didn't get to dig into everything. :)

Here's this year's Easter picture outside the house. I can't believe how big she's gotten in the last year! Here's Katelyn saying Hosanna!!

And here she is ready to head off to church. Sweet, sweet girl.

We had a fun weekend filled with activities, friends and family.

What a blessing!!!!

Play dough extravaganza

Today was such a beautiful day!!! As soon as Katelyn finished dinner she was asking to go outside to play. One of her favorite things to do is play dough so she was in heaven. I'm so blessed to have such a happy, happy girl.

Beautiful!

Just making some waffles....

...and then the big imagination turns the waffle press into a crocodile. :)

Katelyn loves wearing my sunglasses...she was parading around like a little fashion model.

And for whatever reason she kept showing me her belly. It probably doesn't help that I kept laughing at her. She's just REALLY funny.

And this girl's had dry panties for days. I put a pull up on her during nap time and even that's been dry the last couple of days. She's so big all of a sudden. I'm loving this age but I'm grieving a bit as well...there's not much of a baby left...Katelyn's turned into a little girl overnight.

Sigh.